27 villages in Gujarat on alert after Narmada crosses danger mark

Ahmedabad: Around 27 villages of Narmada and Bharuch districts in Gujarat have been put on alert after water from the overflowing Narmada dam resulted in perennial river breaching the danger mark at Golden bridge.

Although the flow of water from upstream Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra has reduced, the dam is still overflowing at 127.95 meters, nearly six meters above its height of 121.90 meters, officials said.

The Narmada district administration has set up an Emergency Response Centre (ERC) and real-time data is being collected to maintain vigil over the water levels in Narmada river.

Alert has been sounded since Wednesday night in 27 villages, including 12 in Nandod taluka and 9 in Tilakwada of Narmada District. Most of the villagers have been evacuated to safer places.

River is flowing almost four feet above the danger mark at Golden Bridge in Bharuch, disrupting the traffic movement, officials said adding that they have alerted the villages in Bharuch, Ankleshwar and Jhagadia areas, where Narmada river is flowing in fury.

According to officials, at noon on Thursday around 7,86,000 cusecs of water was being discharged from the dam, of which 7,09,448 cusecs fall directly into sea, while remaining 76,552 cusecs flows to six river bed turbines for power generation.

Narmada being a perennial river, harnessing of its water by building a huge dam and distributing it to through canal network for drinking and irrigation purposes is a lifeline project of the state, where water scarcity due to deficient rains is a norm.